Virginia Rail

Linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes and NC Sue Wordless
I hope you can join in and share your wild birds and nature scenes.

For this week's wild bird I am sharing the Virginia Rail. This rail was seen on the same day and same place I saw the King Rail.

The Virginia Rail has a gray face and long bill.

At one time while we were sitting in the blind the Virginia Rail came out and walked over to the blind. It was right under the window when I looked down at it.

On this day we saw maybe four or five rails, some were right next to us as we walked down the trail next to the pond.


I hope you enjoyed my wild bird post and photos. Till next week's wild bird post. Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird and nature photos please visit:

 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes and NC Sue Wordless

Thanks to all of our hosts. Michelle for Nature Notes and Stewart of Wild Bird Wednesday and Sue for Wordless Wednesday.

  Happy Birding and have a wonderful week!

Gunpowder River

I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday    and NF Trees

They are all fun memes to participate in...I hope you can join in with the fun  and check out some of the participating posts.

I am sharing some scenes from our walk to the local park and river called Gunpowder River State Park. We went mainly to see the Mountain Laurels in bloom but it was a little early to see all the blooms they were just starting to look pretty.

 The Gunpowder river with some early morning fog, hubby chilling out on a rock, a hummingbird on the nest and a tulip poplar bloom.

While I was standing on one of the rocks at the river I saw a hummingbird flying high above me. I follow the hummer to the treetop and just snapped a photo. I lucked out getting this shot of the hummingbird on the nest. I did not know I got this shot until I looked at this photo on my computer. Can you find the hummingbird?

 For my NF Tree and bush entry I am sharing the Mountain Laurels, some were blooming and some were just starting to blooms. Pretty white and pink blooms. You can see the trail above lower right, the mountain laurels are taller than I am.

The skinny trail next to the river, it is getting crowded out by all the Mountain Laurels and greenery.

A view of the Gunpowder River, the trail headed down to the river and a friend gave me the correct name for the butterfly it is the Pale Beauty butterfly.

More of the foggy river scene, mountain laurel blooms, a Great Blue Heron flying above us and a Louisiana Waterthrush near the foggy river.

Sitting by the river is a cool spot to spend a summer day. Above you can see some fog just above the river created by the air temperature and the water temp. I hope you enjoyed our walk and my post. Thanks as always for your visit and nice comments. Have a great day and week ahead!

I use Pic Monkey to create my mosaics, you can use Pic Monkey free or pay for an upgraded version.

I hope you can join in on our fun with Mosaic Monday  and Our World Tuesday  and NF Trees

 Thanks to Judith our host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer and to Monica for hosting NF Trees & Bushes.  

Saturday's Critters #80

Saturday's Critters #80

It's Saturday and it's time to share your critters.. Any kind of critter will do, even a new or old post.. I appreciate everyone who has linked up in the past and for those who are linking in on this week's critter party. And of course I always appreciate my blogging friends stopping by just for a visit.

I am sharing some birds from one of our daytrips to the Delaware Shores and Bombay Hook WNR.

A Blue Grosbeak posed nicely for a couple of seconds. The male has the pretty rusty wingbars.

A group of Short-billed Dowitchers  and a Willet seen at Prime Hook NWR. I am assuming these are the Short-billed and not the Long Billed Dowitchers.

Osprey with it's dinner seen from the road.

A couple of Black Bellied Plovers at Bombay Hook NWR

Here's looking at you kid!

One of the many bunnies we saw on our walk at Prime Hook NWR.

This shot is cute with the bunny and its paw up to his mouth and a look of surprise.

 I hope you enjoyed this post of birds and the cute bunnies.. Now, I am looking forward to seeing your critters. As always, thank you for your visits and nice comments. Have a happy weekend!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks to Tex Theresa aka Tex, I was able to add this link up button and thanks to  Jennifer for creating my photo badge.

<a href="http://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.com/"><img src=" https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3915/15299083201_9709303697_m.jpg" width="185" height="240"></a>

To see more beautiful birds and cute critters, check out these two memes below.

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.  Also check out Camera Critters. Thanks to Misty for hosting this fun meme.

Ocean City-Assateague Part 2

I am linking up with Skywatch Friday  and Good Fences
I hope you can join in on the fun and share your fence scenes and pretty skies.

For this week's Good Fence and Skywatch Friday memes I am sharing more from our May trip to Ocean City, Maryland and Assateague Island.

We started our morning with the sunrise from the beach in front of our hotel.

The full moon will be setting, seen from the beach. It was a pretty colored moon.

Beach fence is buried under the sand. As you can see we had the beach to ourselves.

Assateague boardwalk and trail. For Tex's Good Fences, I hope the shot above counts as my fence entry.

I am not positive but I think above are the Royal Terns. I was also thinking they could be the Caspian Terns, but my field guide shows a bit of black on the Caspian bill. One Tern on the left side has a thinner bill.

The trail with a view of the sky and way in the distance is one of the Assateague wild ponies.

A closer view of the pony. On this Anniversary trip we saw the Chincoteague wild ponies and the Assateague wild ponies.

A Green Heron seen at Assateague Island.

We walked on a few trails that included a boardwalk. I like this view of the trail, sky and tree.

Some of the Assateague Island birds we saw on the trail and in the forest. Large image is the egrets, top right is the Tricolored Heron, Semipalmated Plover, Black-bellied Plover, Willet, and bottom left is a Eastern Towhee we saw in the woods.  I hope you enjoyed my post and images. And as always thank you for visiting and for the nice comments. Have a happy weekend!

To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and check for Fences from around the world check out Tex's Good Fences

Thanks to Theresa @ The Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting Good Fences and thanks to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday.    I wish everyone a happy day and weekend ahead..

White Ibis

Linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes
I hope you can join in and share your wild birds and nature scenes and NC Sue Wordless

For this week's wild bird I am sharing the White Ibis I saw in Florida.

I love the blue eye and the red face on the breeding adult White Ibis.

The White Ibis is a wading bird found on the southeast coast of the USA. Sometimes they may wander, I believe some have been see along the Mid-Atlantic coast line during the summer months.

Above is the juvie White Ibis showing the brownish feathers.

I hope you enjoyed my wild bird post and photos. Till next week's wild bird post. Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird and nature photos please visit:

 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes and NC Sue Wordless

Thanks to all of our hosts. Michelle for Nature Notes and Stewart of Wild Bird Wednesday and Sue for Wordless Wednesday.

  Happy Birding and have a wonderful week!

Shenandoah National Park

I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday   and NF Trees  They are all fun memes to participate in. I hope you can join in with the fun  and check out some of the participating posts.

I am sharing some scenes from a daytrip to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Our outing included some hiking, birding and driving on the Skyline Drive.  We enjoy going in the spring time to see the young bears and the wildflowers and lots of birds of course.

My mosaic top row: all three are of the Chestnut-sided Warbler. The second row from the left is a Veery, deer and another Chestnut-sided Warbler. Bottom row is the Scarlet Tanager, Indigo Bunting and another Scarlet Tanager.

The Scarlet Tanager was a common bird seen and heard on various trails.

Some more of the wildflowers seen on the Limberlost Trail.

The Chestnut-sided Warbler was see often along the Limberlost Trail.

Seeing a Black Bear along the Skyline Drive is always a treat to me. They have made a come back over the years even though the surrounding states all have bear hunts.

The Black Bears seem to be timid around people, I just hope they stay safe crossing the road.

For NF Trees I am sharing a view from the Appalachian trail. Hardwood forest dominate Shenandoah National Park. The haze in the sky is introduced by humans  and has taken over a lot of the views from the park's overlooks. The polluted air can mean the death of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  I hope you enjoyed our daytrip to Shenandoah National Park.  Thanks for visiting and for the nice comments. Have a great day and week ahead!

I use Pic Monkey to create my mosaics, you can use Pic Monkey free or pay for an upgraded version.

I hope you can join in on our fun with Mosaic Monday  and Our World Tuesday and NF Trees and Bushes.

 Thanks to Judith our host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer and to Monica for hosting NF Trees.

Saturday's Critters #79

Saturday's Critters #79

Wow, this is my 1,000th post since I started blogging in July 2009.  I thank all my wonderful blogging friends for all their visits and comments over the years.

Happy Father's Day!

It's Saturday and it's time to share your critters.. Any kind of critter will do, even a new or old post.. I appreciate everyone who has linked up in the past and for those who are linking in on this week's critter party. And of course I always appreciate my blogging friends stopping by just for a visit.

These are some birds seen during a visit to the Swan Harbor Farms Park in Havre de Grace Maryland back in April. This is the same place where I saw the King Rail on a previous post.

The Yellow Warbler, you can the red streaks down his breast.

A rusty capped Swamp Sparrow, looks like he wants to come out of my photo.

The Virginia Rail a secretive marsh bird.

And a Glossy Ibis is included in the birds we saw during our visit.

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks to Tex Theresa aka Tex, I was able to add this link up button and thanks to  Jennifer for creating my photo badge.

<a href="http://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.com/"><img src=" https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3915/15299083201_9709303697_m.jpg" width="185" height="240"></a>

To see more beautiful birds and cute critters, check out these two memes below.

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.  Also check out Camera Critters. Thanks to Misty for hosting this fun meme.

Ocean City, Maryland

I am linking up with Skywatch Friday  and Good Fences
I hope you can join in on the fun and share your fence scenes and pretty skies.

For this week's Good Fence and Skywatch Friday memes I am sharing some more photos from our Anniversary getaway in early May. A last minute decision we continued our getaway to Ocean City Maryland after we left Chincoteague Island Virginia. That is what is great about being retired we can make last minute trips and getaways. Early May the beaches were fairly empty and we had a choice of hotels to spend the night.

This is the sunrise before leaving Chincoteague Island NWR.

Early morning light with a flock of maybe Dunlin.  I had to do some more birding at Chincoteague Island NWR before we left.

I know this is stretching the fence scene, but if you look closely you can see the wire fence ( just above the Oystercatcher's eye)  at the dune nesting area for the Oystercatchers and the Piping Plovers.

With my great zoom I spotted a cute Piping Plover seen beyond the fence area at Chincoteague Island NWR

We left Chincoteague Island and went to the Ocean City inlet, a fence runs along side the rock jetty. It was a beautiful day to be at the beach.

How did this bird know I needed a fence shot? Is there too much fencing going on here?

According to the Maryland listserve the Sunset Park in Ocean City is always a happening spot to see some birds. Above is the Common Yellowthroated Warbler. For some reason it looks like there is a double or even a triple fence in this spot.

Also seen at the Sunset Park, one of my favorite bird species the Terns. I think these may be the Forster's Tern.

It was a full moon during our little getaway, it was nice seeing it rise over the ocean.   I hope you enjoyed my post and photos. Thanks for stopping by and for the nice comments.


To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and check for more fence shots at Tex's Good Fences

Thanks to Theresa @ The Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting Good Fences and thanks to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday.    I wish everyone a happy day and weekend ahead..